boygenius (stylized in all lowercase) is an American indie supergroup consisting of American singer-songwriters Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus. They debuted with their self-titled EP in 2018, and then returned after a hiatus with their debut studio album, The Record (2023), which was both a critical and commercial success. Labelled an "instant classic" by NME, it topped the charts in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands, and peaked at number four on the U.S. Billboard 200. Their second EP, The Rest, was released on October 13, 2023.
Bridgers has called the formation of the group "kind of an accident," wherein each of the members were simply fans of each other's work and then became friends. Both Dacus and Bridgers had opened for Baker on separate tours in 2016, and they all ran in similar circles as young up-and-coming performers navigating the indie scene.
The three became close and shared their frustrations of constantly being compared to each other as "women in rock" despite their considerably different musical styles. Dacus has commented that the idea of women in music "should not be remarkable whatsoever," with Bridgers adding, "it's not a genre." Each has spoken on the tendency of the music industry to pit women against each other, and the group was formed in part to reject this idea. "I hope people see the three of us and know there isn't competition," Dacus has said. "You don't have to compete with your contemporaries. You can make something good with people you admire."
Baker had joked to Dacus years before about a "pipe dream" that they could one day all form a band. The three decided to book a co-headlining tour in early 2018, and they originally planned to record a single or cover so that they could perform something together on stage. Upon meeting up that summer, however, they found themselves overwhelmed with ideas, and they ended up forming the band, writing, recording, and self-producing the Boygenius EP in four days, with the process involving almost exclusively women.
Each brought one full song and one incomplete idea with them to the group. They sought to create an environment free of the competitiveness and "bravado" they had often encountered in previous experiences, and they have remarked that the absence of adult men in the process proved significant, allowing them to relate to each other openly without constantly having to explain themselves. The record was met with universal acclaim from critics and audiences alike; it was named the 12th best album of 2018 by NPR Music, despite being only an EP. Their subsequent tour that November saw them performing all across the U.S., as well as on Late Night with Seth Meyers and the Tiny Desk Concert.
The group was slated to perform in summer 2019 at Woodstock 50, before its cancellation due to a series of production issues. In 2020, they were featured on Hayley Williams' "Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris" from her EP Petals for Armor II, and also reunited on backing vocals for numerous songs from each other's solo projects: "Graceland Too" and "I Know the End" from Bridgers' Grammy-nominated Punisher, Baker's Little Oblivions single "Favor", and Dacus's "Please Stay" and "Going Going Gone" on Home Video. With the releases scattered throughout the year, all of these were actually recorded on the same day, a process Dacus said "had the same atmosphere as when we recorded the boygenius EP[...] a natural result of being together, easy as can be."
In July 2020, the trio released a handful of demos from their Boygenius recording sessions on Bandcamp to raise money for charitable organizations in their respective hometowns, raising over $23,000 for the Downtown Women's Center of Los Angeles, OUTMemphis, and Mutual Aid Distribution Richmond.
After reuniting on stage for occasional surprise appearances at one another's solo tours throughout fall 2021, the group performed their first full show together since 2018 as the headliner of Bread and Roses Presents' annual benefit concert in San Francisco on November 19.
In January 2023, the band announced their debut studio album, The Record, with a release date of March 31, 2023. The album artwork and three singles from the album, "$20," "Emily I'm Sorry," and "True Blue" were released alongside the album's initial announcement. The three videos from the singles were all directed by actress Kristen Stewart, and were combined into a single promotional short film called The Film.
On January 31, 2023, AEG (Anschutz Entertainment Group) Presents announced that the band would be one of three headline acts at the inaugural Re:SET Concert Series. In April 2023, the group played at the Coachella Music Festival. They then embarked on an international tour, dubbed The Tour.
On September 20, 2023, a music video was released for their song "Cool About It" directed by Lauren Tsai. On October 13 2023, the band released their second EP The Rest, which includes four new songs.
They made their musical guest debut, as well as Bridgers made her 2nd musical guest appearance on Saturday Night Live on November 11, 2023, the fourth episode of Saturday Night Live's 49th season, hosted by American and French actor Timothée Chalamet, star of the hit films Bones and All, Dune and the sequel Dune: Part Two, and the new musical fantasy film Wonka. They performed their two songs "Not Strong Enough" and "Satanist" from their debut studio album The Record. For both of their performances, they dressed as The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. They also appear in the "Troye Sivan Sleep Demon" sketch with Timothée Chalamet and current cast members Bowen Yang and Sarah Sherman.
On November 17, 2023, the band collaborated with Ye Vagabonds to release a cover of "The Parting Glass", paying tribute to the late Sinéad O'Connor, an Irish singer, songwriter, and activist.